At Arizona State University’s New College (where I serve as a tenured full professor of philosophy and religion) the faculty recently voted to make a Native American Land Acknowledgment the official college policy. Until now, these statements were read at the beginning of faculty meetings. At times, faculty were even asked to bow their heads […]
Christian apologetics is often understood as the task of defending the faith—giving reasons why believing in Christ is rational, true, and worthy of commitment. Scripture itself urges believers to be “ready to give an answer” for the hope that is in them (1 Pet. 3:15). Yet the Bible presents this defense not merely as the […]
In a previous article I wrote about how “atheism” is best understood as a belief that there is no God. Those who prefer to describe themselves as merely “lacking God-belief” would do better to describe themselves as “negative atheists” as that is the more precise term. As a postlude to that article, I think it’s important to […]
When I went to university, I encountered the biggest intellectual doubt I’ve ever faced as a Christian: How can I be sure that Christianity is true? Here was my thinking: “Can I really claim that I have the right religion when there are 3,000 others to choose from?” You might have come across a form […]
In my previous article, Jonah and the Big Fish Part 1, I spoke about Jonah, the wayward prophet who initially tried to avoid God’s command to warn the people of Nineveh about the impending judgment they were about to receive for the wickedness of their culture. In that article, I discussed the identity of Jonah, who […]
The Book of Jonah is very short, only four chapters long. It tells of a prophet named Jonah who was told by God to go to the great city of Nineveh and warn them of a coming judgment. Jonah goes the opposite way on a ship, but a violent storm ends with Jonah being tossed […]
David Wood recently posted an excellent video featuring a series of short interview clips with various apologists (Douglas Groothuis, Gary Habermas, Craig Hazen, Mike Licona, Nabeel Qureshi, Mary Jo Sharp, and Frank Turek) on advice to future apologists. As one who is of the younger generation myself (I am almost 27)[1], and who has been active in […]
My inner geek is going to show for just a second here. I love superhero origin stories. My favorite part of the story is watching them learn who they truly are, struggle with their powers, and choose the responsibility of sacrificial heroism. Can you imagine Jesus as Clark Kent? Jesus is the ultimate hero, but […]
A Twitter post caught my eye a while back from a brother in Christ who was fed up with his church’s take on biblical manhood. Manhood, it was implied, was a burly trinity of plaid, football, and Clint Eastwood. As if the lost 11th commandment was: Thine beard shall be like Jesus, and thou shalt give John […]
There is a very common type of fallacious reasoning that I have termed arguing from the extremes. Once you see this, you’ll notice that it’s everywhere in our society and especially political discourse. Roughly speaking it’s the idea that one or an extremely small number of counter examples disproves a whole theory. This is simply […]
